Top 10: Toddler Playroom Wishlist

by Lara on August 27, 2013

Plans are currently underway to put together a killer playroom for our toddler, hopefully in time for what will surely be a rainy and cold Seattle winter. I thought I would share the top ten elements I’m hoping to include.

1) Crawl tunnel: Even though he can now run circles around me, G still loves his crawl tunnel.

2) Low storage shelves and a toddler-accessible bookshelf: This is a Montessori concept, but it also just makes sense to me. Rather than throwing all of G’s toys in a big toy box or storage basket, I hope to make his toys and books organized and accessible.

9) Busy board: A friend of mine and her husband made one of these for their son’s first birthday. They actually did an entire box, but I think a board is more realistic for our abilities. Check out this blog post to get a visual of what I mean.

10) Trampoline: This is my pie-in-the-sky playroom toy. I’m just not sure we will have the space for this, but it’s fun to dream.

They change so much between one and two. Linnea still loves her play tunnel and it’s always a big hit when we have her little friends over too. We have the one from Ikea. The easel/blackboard from Ikea is still a bit big for her, so I just stick a large piece of paper on her table. She only started drawing when she was about 18 months old though. Now she loves it and also likes to paint and finger paint but that only started after she turned two. It’s important for kids to always have access to be able to draw whenever they want to – it’s great for their development.
Easy puzzles are also great. Any sorting game. And cars and those little car slide thingies where you put the car on the top and it goes all the way down. Or just a train table with trains. We don’t have those unfortunately because we ran out of space but whenever we are at friend’s places, that’s all she wants to play with and that started pretty early.
The last few months she has abandoned most of her toys for games that I made myself googling “Busy Bags Ideas”. She loves dried beans with a few cups and a few spoons or sorting pompons in an ice cube tray.
I mean, you have LOTS of time before that becomes interesting (and safe) for G but just so you are prepared. They were a life safer for us because she actually plays by herself with them.